Samurai Jack

Samurai Jack #9

Samurai Jack #9“Villainous Vortex” pits Samurai Jack against a gravity-manipulating machine which, not surprisingly, turns out to be controlled by the evil that is Aku. Samurai Jack #9 delivers a fun story featuring Jack in action against one of Aku’s mechanical soldiers, but for the second straight issue the comic gives us no character interaction between Jack and anyone else. It’s not a bad thing, but I think it would be very easy to see the comic fall into that template that ignores one of the strengths of the television show which spawned it.

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Samurai Jack #8

Samurai Jack #8In an issue without dialogue the focus of Samurai Jack #8 becomes the art as Samurai Jack‘s attempt to hide from the noise of the future city leads him to a sleeping pod. Thanks to the maneuvering of his old enemy Aku, Jack awakes in a mirrored cave where his reflection creates distorted doubles of the samurai out for blood.

I like the idea of doing a Samurai Jack storyline without any dialogue, something “Jack Renumbers the Past” put to tremendious use for most of the episode, but a throwaway one-issue adventure doesn’t have the same impact of Jack returning home for the first time.

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Samurai Jack #7

Samurai Jack #7With Samurai Jack and the Scotsman both turned into females by the Leprechauns the pair’s two-issue gender-bending adventures continue as Samurai Jacqueline and the Scotswoman seek to complete their bargain with the devious imps and confront the giant Cuhullin the Cruel.

Only after confronting the massive creature in battle do Jack and the Scotsman uncover just how much they’ve been played by the evil imps and decide to do what they can to set things right. With the spell broken due to the giant’s wailing breaking the music of the curse (which is only slightly less awkward than it sounds), the restored Jack and Scotsman come up with a plan to help Cuhullin and teach the Leprechauns a much-deserved lesson.

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Samurai Jack #6

Samurai Jack #6In the beginning of a new gender-bending arc, Samurai Jack is surprised by the arrival of The Scotsman (who isn’t so much a Scotsman anymore as a Scotswoman). Learning his friend has been cursed, the samurai sets out to right the wrong which gets more complicated by the fact that The Scotsman wasn’t completely forthcoming with the series of events that led him to show up at Jack’s campsite in a dress.

Finding the leprechauns responsible, and learning that the curse was their reprisal for his friend’s drunken rampage, Samurai Jack agrees to deal with the leprechauns’ enemy Chullin the Cruel if they will agree to remove the curse. Although a deal is struck, it is not entirely to Jack’s liking as until he fulfills his half of the bargain he, along with The Scotsman, will be trapped in a woman’s body.

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